The Levellers began the festival at Escot Park in 2003, after a previous venture the Green Blade Festival ran into licensing difficulties. The Levellers' singer Mark Chadwick explained at the time[3]

The whole reason for doing it is that many festivals are shit. They just haven't got that right element of cultural exchange. We're trying to get that 'weirdness' back into festivals, which is the whole point of doing it ... as soon as the corporate hand sticks its tiniest bit in, they're fucked.

The first two festivals were held over two days (Saturday and Sunday) and utilised two stages, named the Main Stage and the Big Top. In 2005 it became a three day festival with the addition of bands playing on the Friday, and has since expanded the number of stages. Since 2012 there have been six main stages; the two mentioned above, plus the Little Big Top, Bimble Inn, the Band Stand and a Theatre Tent.[4] The festival is held on the third weekend of August, the same weekend as the V Festival; Chadwick stated that although this was not originally deliberate, he liked it because "the ethos of the festival is (the) antithesis of V."[3]